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Nine rail projects in the Midwest, that received a total of $2.6 billion, will be focal point for the Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee meeting Tuesday in Chicago. The fact that the various states involved in the projects coordinated with one another is credited as a big reason they received funding. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said that if new manufacturing jobs are created by the high-speed rail push, he will work to make sure some of those jobs are in the Midwest.

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The Energy Information Administration on Tuesday started its monthly reporting on crude-by-rail movements, beginning with data dating back to 2010. The information "provides a clearer picture on a mode of oil transportation that has experienced rapid growth in recent years and is of great interest to policy makers, the public, and industry," said EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski. According to the agency's new report, the region covering the Midwest and the Bakken play in January transported the largest volumes of crude by rail at an average of 732,000 barrels per day, while the region that includes the East Coast received the greatest volume of shipments at 523,000 barrels per day.

States that want to halt high-speed rail projects may do so, said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, but then they must return the federal funds they have received. In a letter sent to governors-elect in Ohio and Wisconsin, LaHood said: "There seems to be some confusion about how these high-speed rail dollars can be spent." Federal rail dollars cannot be spent on roads or other projects, LaHood noted.

NuStar Energy delivered its first rail shipment of crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken Shale to a terminal in Louisiana, and it intends to transport up to 10,000 barrels per day. NuStar is working with three other companies on the project, a spokeswoman said. "The Bakken crude-oil sources in North Dakota are of critical importance to the United States oil and gas industry," NuStar CEO Curt Anastasio said.

Wisconsin would lose 13,000 jobs and $2.4 billion over three years if tariffs on imported ethanol are allowed to expire, according to a study by the University of Missouri's Community Policy Analysis Center. But an Ohio State University professor says if tariffs expire, it would take three to five years for Brazilian imports to make a dent in the U.S. marketplace. Even then, he says, locally produced ethanol would remain preferable in the Midwest because of the high transportation costs of imported fuel.

In taking an inventory of the summer's brutal weather, this article notes that natural disasters such as floods and tornadoes allow "power equipment dealers [to] shine as major resources for ravaged communities." With record floods causing record damage across the Midwest, "dealers remain well-placed to be focal points of assistance in flood-ravaged communities."